Bicolor and RGB lights

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You can not only change the color temperature on some lights but also change the color value as well. This means that you can have a light that can shine any color of visible light in the electromagnetic spectrum. What types of lights manage changing color temperature and the color of visible light? In this video, author Robbie Carman and guest Kevin Bradley demonstrate how to use bicolor and LED lights.

- All right, Kevin, so far we've talked aboutthe simple approach of gelling lights and,by the way, we didn't want to make it sound that like,you can only gel tungsten lights.Of course if you had a fluorescent lightthat was a little bluer,you could put a warm gel in front of that,or whatever other flavor of gel to augment that.We talked about changing bulbs outon the fluorescent fixture like a Kino Flo.Now, if all that kind of seems like a pain,there are options of course these daysthat make life a little easier when it comes tochanging the color temperature of a light.For example, I have this little Blender light from Loweland if you look on the back of thisI have a couple knobs.

And what I can do with those knobs, well,is I can actually change the color temperatureand dial that in however I see fit, right?So if I want to make it bluer or yellower,I absolutely can do that just with the twist of a dial.Which makes it, when you're doing an interviewand you have, you know, light on somebody, you know,and all of a sudden you want to just change thatto a little warmer or to a little cooler,you don't have to get the C-47 clothespins outand you don't have to get the gels out.You can carry less gearand have a really adaptable approach.

Now, bicolor lights come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.This is obviously a very small one.Could put this on a C-stand very easily,could carry it around, could even probably mount itto the top of a camera, right?- Yes. - Now, I like bicolor lights,but in terms of ultimate flexibilitywe have something like this, right?What are we looking at here?- This is basically taking the bicolor ideaand going to the next level.This is called an RGB light.And RGB lights blend red, green, and blueto create any color that you want.So you could do a color splash of red,or you could do green, or blue, or pink.

- [Robbie] Which is awesome fora wide variety of circumstances.Let's say you're doing something really creative,like a music video, and you want to havelike a real red wash across a background.Really easy to paint that red wallinstead of having to do gelsand all sorts of other augmentation.- [Kevin] Exactly.- Now, so, we have this bank, it's made upof some LED actual fixtures there.Now if you turn this around, the other cool thing about thison the back side is all the controls.Now obviously, this particular light is DMX controllableso great for a studio situationwhere you wanna control it from a DMX-compatible switcherbut up here you can see all these different memoriesso we can, if we dial in a particular color temperaturethat we like, sure, just save it up to a memory.

But then, obviously, the red, the green, and the blue dials.As a DP and as a gaffer, I'd imagine this is like, Nirvana.- I mean, this, this is amazing for a couple of reasons.I mean, number one, we talked about gels earlier.- Yeah.- [Kevin] One of the downfalls of gels is that they eatall the light so you need a very powerful light.- [Robbie] Right, the intensity of the light.- Right, there are, you know, color changing gelsand then there are party gels.Specifically with party gels, if I want to do a red wash,with this light right now we're at 2,800 Kelvin.

But very easily, I could make this intoan absolute red wash by simply...- Dialing it in all the way.- Dialing in all the way to the red.- Now let's flip that back around so we can seewhat those LEDs are actually doingand you can see, yeah, of course they're bright red.Now the cool thing about these LED banksis that depending on the colorthat you're gonna go into or the mix of the color,you're going to get different banks being activated, right.So you go green, you go red, et cetera.You change the intensity of this.Now the cool thing about this is thatthis really lets you dial the exact temperature in.

Now, I will question, though.Lot of lights like this come withsomething like this, right?- Yes.- What's this plastic piece all about?It's not really gel per se, right?- No, and it's actually not even diffusion.This is called a holographic diffuser,and a holographic diffuser takes the lightand it concentrates it into one flat field.So for example...- Instead of the points that it is now.- Instead of the point sources that you see herewhich will blind your talent, you now cancreate something that is easier to look at.

- Gotcha. Now the cool thingabout these lights, too, besides obviouslythe color temperature is intensity, right?We can simply on this lightjust adjust an actual intensity knob,so if you need to get it brighter,right? - Right.- And you can do the same thing on RGB lightsif you want a more intense red versus a more subdued red,so you have both that color controlas well as the overall intensity control,and in my opinion when it comes to modern lightinginstead of, you know,I don't want to take anything awayfrom the magic art of gelling and the scienceand the technique that goes into therebut for run and gun, documentary, that kind of stuffhaving this flexibility with bicoloror true RGB in lights makes life a whole lot easier,I'd imagine, as a DP.

- Absolutely.- Very cool. So there you go.A little bit about gelling and changingthe color temperature of lights, but thenalso getting a little more sophisticatedwith changing the fluorescent tubes,and then the ultimate, bicolor and RGB lights.

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Author

Updated

12/2/2016

Released

4/15/2016

From the guys who brought you Video Gear Weekly comes Video Production and Post Tip of the Week! In this weekly series, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman answer common video production and post-production questions, explore gear, and demonstrate useful techniques. As you've come to expect, they keep both cost and quality in mind. Get practical. Get hands-on. Get tips every week.

Rich and Robbie explore the latest in video technologies, compatible gear, and how to adjust camera settings to capture images using new perspectives, new resolutions, and new speeds. They provide gear suggestions, with options that meet different budget ranges, and they demonstrate how to implement techniques to solve problems.